The co-owners of Americain, the favourite for the Melbourne Cup, will use the stallion to breed locally what they hope will one day be a champion stayer.

The cashed-up Australian breeding industry, the second largest in the world behind the US’s, has long been biased towards breeding precocious early maturing two-year-olds built for short bursts of speed rather than stayers, which are a longer-maturing equine investment.

Along with 2011 Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden, Americain will carry the top weight of 58 kilograms in the gruelling 3200 metre 2012 Melbourne Cup.

Win or lose, Americain’s owners,
Gerry Ryan
and Kevin Bamford, will almost certainly retire the champion stallion after the cup, with the intention of pairing him down the track with fillies that they bought at this year’s Inglis Sydney Classic Yearling Sales, at Easter.

Mr Bamford told The Australian Financial Review that he and Mr Ryan had used some of the $5.8 million prizemoney won by eight-year-old Americain – which includes winning the 2010 Melbourne Cup and finishing fourth in the race in 2011, plus a string of other group 1 wins – to invest in horses, including two well-bred fillies.

“We took some of our winnings and bought a filly by Redoute’s Choice and a Fastnet Rock at the Sydney sales at Easter," he said.

“We did that with the logic even if they don’t get far as racehorses in their own right, we will put them with Americain. And in the future we want to buy horses that we can put with Americain."

Mr Bamford had high hopes for another horse he owns, Kindergarden Kid, which ran in the Breeders’ Cup Mile in California on Saturday, finishing sixth.

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Kindergarden Kid is by Americain’s sire, Dynaformer. Another Dynaformer progeny, Point of Entry, ran as favourite in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He finished second.

“If it had [won], it would certainly have helped with Americain’s breeding," Mr Bamford said.

However, he remains adamant that Australian owners have to do more to breed local stayers.

“If we are going to have horses run in the Melbourne Cup, we are going to have to breed them. Everyone wants to breed a horse that wins a [shorter race for two-year-olds] like the Blue Diamond or Golden Slipper and so on."

“So I hope we will be pleasantly surprised with the take-up for Americain’s services."

Reflecting the trend in Australia towards breeding early sprinters, only one Australian-bred horse ­finished in the top 10 in the 2011 ­Melbourne Cup – Niwot, which ran eighth.

Despite Americain’s string of impressive wins, Magic Millions sales director David Chester put the stallion’s value at no more than $5 million, compared with
Nathan Tinkler
’s four-year-old super colt, All Too Hard, whose worth has been estimated as close to $30 million.

“If All Too Hard went to stud tomorrow, he could probably command a first season service fee of about $50,000, compared with about $10,000 to $15,000 for Americain," Mr Chester said.

“I don’t know that Americain would be a popular horse with mares in Australia," he said.

“It’s a hard one. He might be a great horse – but those sort of dyed-in-the-wool stayers are not popular in Australia.

“Americain would be better off standing in New Zealand or the United Kingdom. That is just the commercial reality of our breeding industry now."